I’ll argue that front-end developers need to master four different skills.

Empathy

Code

Design

Communication

Front-End Developers, having learnt HTML, CSS and JS, are forced to take functionality into account when creating user experiences or making sure that the two disciplines work as one from a development perspective. They become all-rounders, having to understand what is actually happening between the AJAX data and the PHP file that’s sending off a mail or returning errors.

In my opinion, what defines a good front-end developer is one that has skilled knowledge of HTML, CSS, JS with a vast understanding of User design thinking as they'll be building web interfaces with accessibility in mind. They should also be excited to learn, as the world of Front-End Development keeps evolving. The ability to stay in the loop is critical.

This is a guide that anyone could use to learn about the practice of front-end development. It broadly outlines and discusses the practice of front-end engineering: how to learn it and what tools are used when practicing it in 2018.

It is specifically written with the intention of being a professional resource for potential and currently practicing front-end developers to equip themselves with learning materials and development tools. Secondarily, it can be used by managers, CTOs, instructors, and head hunters to gain insights into the practice of front-end development.

This is a guide that anyone could use to learn about the practice of front-end development. It broadly outlines and discusses the practice of front-end engineering: how to learn it and what tools are used when practicing it in 2017.

It is specifically written with the intention of being a professional resource for potential and currently practicing front-end developers to equip themselves with learning materials and development tools. Secondarily, it can be used by managers, CTOs, instructors, and head hunters to gain insights into the practice of front-end development.

Part of that discussion was about job titles. If there was a ubiquitously accepted and used job title that meant you were specifically skilled at HTML and CSS, and there was a market for that job title, there probably wouldn't be any problem at all. There isn't though. "Web developer" is too vague. "Front-end developer" maybe used to mean that, but has been largely co-opted by JavaScript.

I tried to illustrate some of the issues I remember, from wrong font sizes to spacing to alignment. There was a lot more issues, but you get the point. To the developer this was fine because he was more concerned about the functionality and JS behind this and visually he believed it was “close enough”. Unfortunately, for this client (and any client IMO) would equally care for the aesthetics. This individual was extremely talented in JS builds and development but visuals and CSS weren’t his strength. On the flip side, I also worked with individuals who are truly amazing CSS developers but aren’t heavily invested in deep JS work.

According to various sources, including the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2017, JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language on Earth and I do love it, I actually tweeted this a while back:

But this article isn’t about how much I love JavaScript, nope, it’s about how much it’s saturating the front end development space and worryingly becoming the be–all and end–all of front end development.

Let’s recap, the three front end technologies are:

HTML

CSS

JavaScript

However, it seems nowadays that most front end developers, and people looking to hire them, are only caring about the big “J”, plus one of the big JavaScript frameworks/libraries, well let’s just say

This is a guide that anyone could use to learn about the practice of front-end development. It broadly outlines and discusses the practice of front-end engineering: how to learn it and what tools are used when practicing it in 2017.

It is specifically written with the intention of being a professional resource for potential and currently practicing front-end developers to equip themselves with learning materials and development tools. Secondarily, it can be used by managers, CTOs, instructors, and head hunters to gain insights into the practice of front-end development.